I miss attunements, and let me explain...

What this means to me is that you become adjusted tot he skill level needed to do the "next" piece of content.

I remember when I was in Kara in BC and a friend of mines guild was
in Grull's and SSC and they never looked down on us for being further
behind than them, because we were working our butts off to see the new
content (which we eventually did and all of it).

Nostalgia has nothing to do with this as Matt Rossi might imply ( http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/07/11/the-hardcore-game-is-dead/
). It's about doing something that was hard to do and being proud that
you did it. It's about my stories with guildies about how BAD we all
were back in the beginning of TBC because we couldn't follow simple raid
mechanics like Attumen the huntsman ( http://www.wowwiki.com/Attumen_the_Huntsman
) and how we progressed each night and how sometimes we thought it
would be impossible, until one day the group clicked and we made it
through each piece of content. It's about going into Zul Aman 10 times
before figuring out what each person needed to do before killing the
bear boss and then reflecting and using those skills and "On the fly
strategizing" in later raids.

I don't claim to be the best, but I do claim to be good. I have
realized after leveling a Paladin (after giving away my account after
the first tier of Cata and buying a new one) that the journey for me
from 1-85 was nowhere near as epic as my journey from 1-70 in BC or 1-60
in Vanilla (though I wasn't a huge fan of Vanilla). I have also come to
realize that playing the game for gear isn't enough anymore, because
after just a few days of doing heroics (from crafted and quest blues) I
am now almost ready for the "End game" content and have no desire again
to do it because it will end my "not so epic" journey.

It used to be that Blizzard was gamers first, business men second,
but evidently to combat loss of subscribers and money we have catered to
those who either don't remember or never knew what it used to be like.

On an observation note. A lot of the players who enjoyed TBC were
probably like me in college and had free time to raid constantly so TBC
was fun and it was okay to do things that way, but now that we have all
grown up and have responsibilities, kids, wives, mortgage payments, and
jobs, we feel like we have the right to ask for content that is more
accessible. What we (the people of this situation) don't realize is that
we are teaching the newer generations that it is supposed to be easy
and everything will be handed to you if you just whine a little bit, and
it doesn't stop there. We have robbed them of the very experience that
we had "growing up with WoW".

Well I'm back and I have revamped my interest in my Paladin especially for the upcoming expansion (Mist of Pandaria). I don't have much to say about the expansion as I have not been invited to the beta (but I'm still trying to win a key from various sites). My current Paladin is Brutalizzy on US - Lightbringer, who is not 85 but will be pretty soon!

As you can see if it's been a while since you have been by this site, I have changed a few things up, mainly the look and feel of the site. I thought since we were comming into a new expansion it would be a good idea to update the site with the new look. Let me know what you think and don't forget to bookmark for convenience.

Just a bit of information:

I will be writing an article once a week on Tuesdays (because it's maintenance day of course...) and plan to relay some of the information and debates from the various forums I frequent, and put my .02 cents in as well. I'm really looking forward to this expansion (unlike Cataclysm) and can't wait to get in the fray and start writing about it!

There are very few instances where I would skew from this spec but if you find that Efflorescence isn't a major part of your healing you can leave out the points in it as well as the points in Living seed.

The basic: 8/2/31 This spec picks up talents that effectively increase healing across the board as well as save mana.

The idea behind this is to stack intellect making revitalize more effective, and having a larger Intellect pool also increases healing, crit, mana pool, and ultimately mana regen. It also brings a few talents that decrease the base mana cost of spells as well as a few talents that increase your mana by a percentage. (this becomes exponentially valuable due to how revitalize works.)

Gear:

This is up for discussion depending on your healing role but in a 10 man group a good balance of Mastery / Haste / Crit / Spirit is your goal. I personally am able to get away with around 1900 mana regen while in combat, this may very in playstyle but I find stacking int more effective than stacking spirit as our talents can surpass the amount of mana regen spirit can give us as well as the fact that int creates raw through-put.

Picking items with Stam / Int after around 1900 in combat regen will net you much more than Stam / Int / Sprit gear will.

Enchants:

Enchanting is easy. INT > Haste > Spirit (Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality can also be a viable option if you are having a hard time with movement IE standing in fire etc.)

To sum up this section im just going to say that our mastery (Symbiosis) is reliant on the initial hot. It is normally good practice to start with a rejuv and then stack life bloom so that the life bloom gains the effect of symbiosis.

Knowing when to let Life bloom expire will take practice, just remember that LB expirations can and normally will heal for as much as, if not more with symbiosis than a healing touch. re-applying LB can actually net you mana back over casting a healing touch. Nourish has a very small place in raid and or raid tank healing but if you find yourself standing there it is a very mana efficient heal.

With the up comming patch Nourish may see more use in both raid and MT healing but for now it is very situational.

Tree of life should be used when you know your raid and or tank is going to need the extra healing, I cannot tell you how many times I have popped ToL and realized i should have popped it earlier due to lack of GCD's. When you do pop ToL remember that just because regrowth is an instant cast it is still very costly and should be used sparringly. If you have the chance roll 3 stacks of LB on each tank and try keeping them up with nourish or Healing touch as casting LB again after ToL has expiried will over write the existing dual stacks.

Tranquility is a MAJOR tool as of the release of Cataclysm, not only is it very powerfull but i have found a reason to use it on almost every boss fight I've been in. It is normally good practice to wait for the raid leader to ask for it but it is a judgement call.